Addie’s heading to Park Potomac
Addie’s, the beloved Rockville restaurant that closed its doors three years ago, is making plans for a comeback. Owners Jeff and Barbara Black have signed a lease for 4,000 square feet at Park Potomac, where they’ll try to recreate the old Addie’s magic with indoor/outdoor seating and some of their original menu items. The Blacks, who own a half-dozen restaurants including BlackSalt, Black’s Bar & Kitchen and Black Market Bistro, have said they closed Addie’s primarily because the little yellow building was in such disrepair. That issue also caused delays for their successor, D.C. caterer Helen Wasserman, who spent two years on renovations before opening Helen’s Bar & Grill just last week. For more on Helen’s, click here for our April 7th edition.
New closing date for the Apple Store: May 7th
The Apple Store at Westfield Montgomery Mall has pushed back its closing by a week, setting May 7th as the new date for the start of its expansion in the Macy’s wing. Apple is taking over the space formerly occupied by BCBG and Teavana, with a reopening planned for this fall. The neighboring Sephora store also is expanding this summer, but in Sephora’s case the current store will remain open while the new one’s under construction across the hall. For more on these and other changes to the Macy’s wing, click here for our April 4th special edition.
Two Irish openings
It’s a month too late for St. Patrick’s Day, but two new Irish restaurants have opened their doors in the Rockville/Potomac area. Lahinch, from the owners of the Irish Inn at Glen Echo, offers a menu of Irish and American dishes in the former Benny’s space at Cabin John Shopping Center. And over at Rockville Town Square, Finnegan’s Wake Irish Pub has opened for business at the Gibbs Street space formerly occupied by Carbon Peruvian Chicken.
Another sports store files Chapter 11
In the wake of last month’s Chapter 11 filing for Sports Authority, this week we noted the bankruptcy of Delaware-based Vestis Retail Group, parent to Eastern Mountain Sports, Sport Chalet and Bob’s Stores. None of those chains had a presence in Montgomery County (although Eastern Mountain does have a store in Virginia), but this latest bankruptcy suggests that the shakeout of big-box sporting goods stores isn’t over yet. In our area we’ve also seen the demise of City Sports (which lasted just a year at Pike & Rose before the whole chain filed Chapter 11) and local retailer Hudson Trail Outfitters, which closed all of its stores last fall.
